How to specify the key password using javax.net.ssl?

Question

I am having difficulties with Java SSL. The issue is my key has a password. When I generated the key using the command openssl req -new -newkey rsa:1024 -nodes -out local.csr -keyout local.key, when asked for A challenge password []:, I entered MyKeyPass. Then I got the certificate from a Certificate Authority. I then imported the certificate into a KeyStore and a TrustStore.

One of my Apps is based on Jetty and runs using Maven, the other uses raw sockets and I am not using Maven for it.

When I use the certificate with Jetty, using the following configuration, everything works fine:

<connector implementation="org.mortbay.jetty.security.SslSelectChannelConnector">
  <port>443</port>
  <maxIdleTime>30000</maxIdleTime>
  <keystore>keys/domain.jks</keystore>
  <password>KeyStorePass</password>
  <keyPassword>MyKeyPass</keyPassword>
  <truststore>keys/truststore_domain.jks</truststore>
  <trustPassword>TrustStorePass</trustPassword>
</connector>

However, for the App not using Jetty/Maven, the following configuration is not working:

-Djavax.net.ssl.keyStore=./keys/domain.jks \
-Djavax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword=KeyStorePass \
-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=./keys/truststore_domain.jks \
-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=TrustStorePass \

I get the following error:

Caused by: java.security.UnrecoverableKeyException: Cannot recover key
    at sun.security.provider.KeyProtector.recover(KeyProtector.java:328)
    at sun.security.provider.JavaKeyStore.engineGetKey(JavaKeyStore.java:138)
    at sun.security.provider.JavaKeyStore$JKS.engineGetKey(JavaKeyStore.java:55)
    at java.security.KeyStore.getKey(KeyStore.java:792)
    at sun.security.ssl.SunX509KeyManagerImpl.<init>(SunX509KeyManagerImpl.java:131)
    at sun.security.ssl.KeyManagerFactoryImpl$SunX509.engineInit(KeyManagerFactoryImpl.java:68)
    at javax.net.ssl.KeyManagerFactory.init(KeyManagerFactory.java:259)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLContextImpl$DefaultSSLContext.getDefaultKeyManager(SSLContextImpl.java:621)
    at sun.security.ssl.SSLContextImpl$DefaultSSLContext.<init>(SSLContextImpl.java:486)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:525)
    at java.lang.Class.newInstance0(Class.java:372)
    at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:325)
    at java.security.Provider$Service.newInstance(Provider.java:1238)
    ... 12 more

Of course, it is missing the KeyPassword (MyKeyPass). I have been trying to find how to specify it using the -Djavax.net.ssl syntax, but can't seem to find it. How do I specify the Key Password?

Answer 1

You can't do it via those system properties: you have to use the default that leaves it the same as the keystore password. Or else install a custom KeyManager.